Real Madrid will be bidding to make it six straight wins in all competitions at the start of the 2023-24 campaign when they welcome Union Berlin in the Champions League on Wednesday night. Los Blancos will enter the contest off the back of a 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad in La Liga, while Union Berlin suffered a 2-1 loss to Wolfsburg in their last Bundesliga fixture on Saturday.
Real Madrid have not quite been at their free-flowing best early in the season, but the capital giants have been incredibly effective, recording five straight wins in La Liga to sit top of the table on 15 points. Carlo Ancelotti’s side beat Athletic Bilbao and Almeria by two-goal margins in their opening two league games of the campaign, but they have only edged their last three matches against Celta Vigo, Getafe and Real Sociedad, beating the latter 2-1 on Sunday evening to return to the summit.
Real Madrid have the small matter of a trip to Atletico Madrid in the Madrid derby this weekend, but their current focus is on the Champions League, as they bid to make the perfect start to a section which also includes Portuguese outfit Braga and Italian champions Napoli. The Whites have won the European Cup an incredible 14 times, making them comfortably the dominant force in the history of this competition, with their last success coming in the 2021-22 season.
Real Madrid reached the semi-finals of last season’s competition, losing to Manchester City, and they will again be expected to advance deep into the tournament this term. Union Berlin, meanwhile, finished fourth in the Bundesliga last season, claiming 62 points from their 34 matches, which saw them directly qualify for the group stage of the Champions League for the first time.
Die Eisernen played in the Europa Conference League during the 2021-22 season but failed to progress past the group stage, although they did reach the last-16 stage of the 2022-23 Europa League. Union Berlin will now make the step-up into the biggest cup competition in European football, and they will enter the contest at Bernabeu off the back of two disappointing domestic results.
Indeed, Urs Fischer’s side have lost their last two in the Bundesliga against RB Leipzig and Wolfsburg, which followed three straight wins in all competitions, including their opening two in the league, and a total of six points has left them in eighth position in the table. Union Berlin are very much an unknown quantity in this competition, which could help them on Wednesday evening, but their home form in the section is likely to determine whether they have a genuine chance of reaching the knockout round of this season’s tournament.
Union Berlin, meanwhile, finished fourth in the Bundesliga last season, claiming 62 points from their 34 matches, which saw them directly qualify for the group stage of the Champions League for the first time. Die Eisernen played in the Europa Conference League during the 2021-22 season but failed to progress past the group stage, although they did reach the last-16 stage of the 2022-23 Europa League.
Union Berlin will now make the step-up into the biggest cup competition in European football, and they will enter the contest at Bernabeu off the back of two disappointing domestic results. Indeed, Urs Fischer’s side have lost their last two in the Bundesliga against RB Leipzig and Wolfsburg, which followed three straight wins in all competitions, including their opening two in the league, and a total of six points has left them in eighth position in the table.
Union Berlin are very much an unknown quantity in this competition, which could help them on Wednesday evening, but their home form in the section is likely to determine whether they have a genuine chance of reaching the knockout round of this season’s tournament.